Saturday, December 4, 2010

House is quiet right now...Shannon's at Matty's and Cassidy is on the computer in the back of the house. Greg has gone to fight with the Best Buy people about why we still don't have the tv we bought a week ago...
So now is a good time to work on writing/editing/ and anything else that takes brainpower...

It's so hard to do any of that with the TV going...I fight the distraction monster on a minute by minute basis...so after I make my grocery list, I'm going to block out about 2 hours of quiet editing....I'm working on Chapter 4...again...trying to take it line by line...read a blog post about line editing that was very helpful as far as how your mind has to be when you're line editing....helped me realize the point of view I need to be looking at the words from....not just the imaginary reader, but also from the point of is this really necessary? Do I really need that sentence? Can I rephrase this without losing what I'm trying to convey? Those are questions I was asking myself, but not as often as I needed to.

Twitter has really been helping me find other blogs and helping me see what to do and not do and how to approach writing in general...It's becoming a valuable resource...

Friday, December 3, 2010

When I created this blog, I wasn't sure when I would post or what I would post.....hadn't really read many blogs to know about 'blog edicate'...like if you're going to have one, you need to update it every once in a while. So this is me, thinking I didn't have anything to say and then realizing that all the blogs I've read since creating this one are just regular people saying what they think. Well, I can do that...

Then tonight as I sit here while Polar Express is running on the TV for the second time tonight, (gotta love ABCfamily) I thought maybe I needed to use it to track my progress in my writing. I've been at this for what seems like forever, and I do have a full time job, and I'm a mom. I only started on Fall Break of 2008, but sometimes I get distracted and I lose track of time. I read a blog post from a lady that said she'd been editing for 6 months. I started wondering how long I'd been editing....hmmm.....seems like it's been FOREVER...
I catch myself starting over on the same chapter to try and get the flow of the story only having read it a thousand times, I'm not really appreciating where the mistakes are or where the sentence needs to be restructured. Tweaking has to be a excruciatingly, patient process....thorough attention to details....which I have a hard time with...
I get distracted fairly easily, so my progress is slow. I thought maybe if I use this blog like a diary and show myself where I am, it'll light a fire under me to stay more focused. After reading some other peoples' blog posts about writing and how it's close to impossible to get published anyway, it makes me want to just stop fooling with it....but at the same time.....I don't want to....I'm too stubborn to take no for an answer, no matter how many times I hear it. No matter how bad of a writer I am.....I know I'm not any good yet. Writing is a craft you learn...it's just like playing an instrument.
When I first started playing the trumpet in high school....I sucked...because I'd never played one before, but that didn't stop me....I practiced every day...started after marching season was over, around mid-November, and then by our Christmas concert, I was playing the third part of all the music. I was last chair, but that's ok.... I knew the more I did it, the better I would get. In two years, in my senior year, I went from last chair to 4th and from 3rd part to 1st part. That's not too shabby.
I feel like as a musician, I have the determination to get this done....musician's know....pieces don't get under your fingers or out of your mouth if you don't practice...so that's where I am...I'm just going to keep practicing, and allowing other people's eyes to look over it and see where the mistakes are when I can't see them any more...keep up with Twitter more...that seems to be where all the agents hang out...and write, write, and write some more...:)

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About Me

I've got a great husband and two daughters, one cheerleader and one with autism. Makes for an interesting dynamic. One day I'd like to travel to Australia and England and then Ireland and Scotland. My email is dobeau@hotmail.com.